The Concept, Signs and System of Environmental Safety Crimes Committed by Omission

Extended Abstract. The article focuses on the challenges associated with defining the concept of environmental safety crimes committed by omission, and on the issues related to the systematization and structural arrangement of the criminal law provisions establishing liability for committing of such crimes. The author outlines specific (identifying) signs allowing to differentiate the criminal practices within this category as a comparatively autonomous group, namely: a common target of the offense, i.e., social relations in the area of environmental safety; the nature of the offense and the manner of committing it by criminal omission which manifests itself primarily as criminal connivance in environmentally hazardous activities; peculiarities of behavior representing non-interference with an occurring environmentally hazardous situation and non-application (or improper application) of measures to counteract it; formalization under criminal law of acts which, taken together, amount to criminal omission in the area of environmental safety and which are designated as crimes (rather than criminal infraction); status-related and legal signs of persons committing criminal omissions in the area of environmental safety; similar perpetrators (presence of a special perpetrator). The author maintains that the crime target aspect of the crimes punishable under Articles 237 and 238 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is characterized by a mixed omission committed by a person who, in fulfilling the legal obligations assigned to him/ her, either does not fulfill them completely or fulfills them improperly. The author provides the rationale for his position on the expediency of using the term “criminal omission in the area of environmental safety” covering all types of criminally liable behavior of persons with special obligations which manifests itself in their non-interference with an occurring environmentally hazardous situation and their non-application of measures to counteract the development of such a situation and prevent its dangerous consequences. The author offers his own classification of crimes under study which will facilitate their comprehensive research with a view to further improving the relevant criminal law provisions and the practice of their application. Key words: environmental safety crimes committed by omission, connivance in environmentally hazardous activities, environmental protection under criminal law, state environmental policy of Ukraine, national security of Ukraine, constituent elements of crime, classification under criminal law, criminal law provisions, criminal liability, criminology.